Universal Conflicts Part One: Heirs to Kobol
by Skywalker195
Summary: When Grand Moff Tarkin and Commander Adama both appear with their respective ships above the ancient Colonial homeworld, what will fate decide for their journey?


Disclaimer: The characters, ships, and locations mentioned in this story are all the property of their respective copy-right owners. This is for non-profit intentions.

**Universal Conflicts**

**Episode I:**

**Heir to Kobol**

The once majestic home world to all of humanity in the galaxy, Kobol sat in a throne of perfect orbital alignment around her great kingdom. She appeared like a giant emerald amongst the heavens as she seemed to be the only witness to the sudden appearance to _Galactica_, containing her descendants who didn't even know why they were there. On the bridge, Commander Adama stirred, feeling relentlessly tired and confused by lying on the floor.

_This is impossible! Last thing I remember, there was a basestar tailing us into the nebula. There was a blinding explosion as I ordered a fusion missile into the center of the Cylon's ship, but how did I end up here?_

Picking himself up, Adama looked around to find that the rest of his crew were in a similar situation, laying stretched upon the floor and just now awaking like they'd been in their bunks. Starring out the windows he could see a planet hanging just barely in view, but the way the image changed told him the most concerning piece of information. Battlestar _Galactica _was drifting lifeless near the planet. As some of the other bridge officers had time to get to their feet Adama was already shouting orders.

"Damage report, what is our current status? Get me a scan of the system."

The lighting on the bridge was still cast in red, sending everything into a dark hue, but the monitors were still active. Relief coursed through Adama as he knew at least they had power.

"No battle damage detected." Spoke Colonel Tigh, as he was the first to make it to a station. "All stations are reporting full battle readiness, they are requesting further orders and curious to know what's the situation."

"This is the Commander speaking." Adama announced as he clicked over the comm unit. "All hands are to remain at action stations until we've evaluated that there is no reasonable threat."

Adama ended his announcement with a heavy weight upon his chest. _Did I lead the survivors out in hopes of finding Earth, just to return back almost where we started at?_ He didn't ponder the subject long, which regardless of the present circumstances was probably a good idea anyway, as he noticed the ship shifting direction.

"Commander, helm is back online. All systems are functioning as normal and awaiting your order." One of the lieutenants on the second tier confirmed the good news with a trained steady voice.

"Bring us into a stable orbit around Kobol."

He prepared to have a full scan of the system ran, when the necessity of such an order became unnecessary. Every officer below at the scanners seemed like they wanted to announce the news, but Omega, who had just taken his seat at the upper tier station, presented the news himself.

"Scanners pick up a new contact, bearing..."

"What the hell is that?" Adama asked, cutting Omega off as the massive ship came into view on the forward window seeming to fly over Kobol's head. The vessel maneuvered to the side so that a triangular shadow threw core command further into darkness as it partially eclipsed the sun.

"No Cylon markings so far as I can tell." Omega informed them as the scans started to come in. "It's some sort of heavily shielded and armored dreadnaught. Slightly larger than us and bristling with weaponry. The scans also detect thousands of human life signs."

Gasps filled and echoed through out command, and even Adama could feel his own mouth slightly open.

"Could it be...the thirteenth tribe...Earth?" Athena asked, her gaze turning excited as the other officers had already starting cheering at the news that their brethren might be here to help them, seeming more advanced than even the Cylons.

"I have a message coming in," Omega notified Adama. "someone called Grand Moff Tarkin requests you put him through on screen at once."

**xXx**

Tarkin brushed the front of his uniform's tunic as he stood back up straight on the bridge. His scowl seemed to push his prominent cheek bones even higher as he watched out the front view screen as some oddly formed vessel stabilized itself on the other side of the mysterious planet's orbit. Behind him, he heard the approaching foot steps that signified Captain Darcc must have made it to his feet and had a report...that was unless he had died and his next in command taken his place. Tarkin gracefully turned with his hands held nobly behind his back as Darcc stopped just two feet short of the Moff.

"Have you located our position yet, Captain?"

"No sir, we don't recognize any stars and are near no identifiable systems. All systems are online and at peak efficiency, all except for the holonet transceivers which are undamaged, but will not respond."

Tarkin took one of his hands from behind his back and placed it along the bottom of his chin as if that would help him think of a better solution out of this unexpected and unexplainable predicament.

"That ship out there." Tarkin turned to the side and moved his hand to point in the a fore mentioned vessel's direction. "What have your scans revealed of it?"

"It's weapon systems are similar in configuration to our own. We have detected twenty point-defense laser turrets and thirty-two turbolasers angled in a fashion that they seem to be used for a similar purpose or close range ship-to-ship combat. There also are two immensely powerful laser weapons facing forward and a number of missile launchers, their signature seems similar to that of proton torpedoes, but on a much larger scale. I do not suggest we engage..."

Tarkin raised a hand and the captain immediately silenced himself as a small smirk violated the Moff's face with it's appearance.

"The rebels have assembled a wide number of vessels through out the years, sometimes big sometimes small, but never something new. When that rebel frigate attempted to escape up when the anomaly appeared, we all knew that beyond it was likely their commander or their fleet. We are not going to back down now that we face one of their mobile bases simply because their rotting old ship has weaponry that might be on-par with our own. Contact them at once, I will speak with them personally, and if they do not surrender, we will attack. Is that understood, Captain?"

Captain Darcc backed away a step at how Tarkin had allowed his voice to become almost impossibly more imposing than it already was. Nodding his head once, the captain offered a simple 'yes' and moments after he walked away, the holographic projector displayed a visual like that of a standard view screen in front of the moff. A deep burgundy background shined out around the holograms projection as a smiling old man appeared in the middle, wearing some sort of odd blue uniform.

"I am Commander William Adama of the battlestar _Galactica_. We offer our greetings to you fellow humans, and ask if you have any knowledge of Earth."

_A battlestar he says? That is an unusual classification for a ship that size. And of this Earth he speaks, he must be referring to some sort of planet in this sector._

"Commander Adama, I am Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin of the Galactic Empire, and this is my flagship the _Executrix_." Tarkin greeted himself with his usual stiff voice, but hesitated a moment before he continued. "We are not familiar with this place called 'Earth' that you spoke of, but do have some questions we would like for you to answer."

The man calling himself Adama clearly seemed disappointed upon hearing that they didn't know of Earth, but he didn't lose all enthusiasm for some reason, and showed no hesitation in responding.

"How could I help you?"

"We have no recollection as to where we are nor how we arrived here, but before we entered the spacial anomaly that brought us here, we encountered a rebel ship that tried to cross the barrier. What do you know of this?"

"My crew and myself do not know how we ended up here either, but this planet is known as Kobol, it was our home world long ago. As far as this ship you speak of, we know nothing of it specifically. We have a fleet of almost two hundred and twenty civilian ships that..."

"Have you or any of the members made any attacks against the Empire?" Tarkin asked more harshly this time, rudely cutting Adama off.

"We've been conducting guerrilla warfare for some time now, but not against any humans."

"We will see if what you have said is true. Power down all your non-essential systems and prepare to be boarded. We will search your ship and scan your computer systems to see if any information you have given us is false."

Adama's eyes narrowed as he faced down Tarkin, leaning forward so it seemed he wished to test the moff.

"We are not your enemy, but we can not allow you to board our vessel without reasonable motivation. Be reasonable, we are no more..."

In the middle of Adama's words, the speech seemed lost in his throat as the transmission ended temporarily as space reappeared and a flash of green light burst about a hundred meters off the bow. Once it ended, all the crew appeared shocked as Tarkin's satisfied face reappeared on screen.

"I will warn you only once, rebels, do not attempt any hostile action. If you follow our orders, you may be allowed to leave unscathed with only a 'marginal' amount of supplies taken and your ship wont be forced into Imperial service. Resist me, and your ship will be destroyed."

The rest of the crew silenced themselves, but Adama's resolve was far superior than what this grand moff must have anticipated.

"And I'll only warn you once. Attack my ship, and you'll have be blasted across the next twelve systems."

Tarkin glared at Adama one moment longer, and then his smirk turned back into a frown that was more typical of him. Then, the transmission ended and green and blue fire lanced out at _Galactica_, blasting against her force shields, but causing tremors none the less as the powerful impacts drained power.

"Shields positive!" Adama yelled as the view into space almost immediately become blocked by a thick sheet of armor. "Status of the heavy lasers?"

"Still charging, Commander." Omega acknowledged. The sounds of multiple impacts continuously rang through out the command center and, most likely, the rest of the ship. "Another two minutes before we have them at maximum output."

"And the other systems?" Colonel Tigh broke in.

"Force field is at seventy-three percent power and dropping...I'm picking up new contacts as well, they must be deploying fighters. All weapons and Viper squadrons are ready, awaiting your orders, Commander."

"Turn us about." Adama ordered, glaring hard down at the scanner where the triangular vessel was, followed by much smaller signals that were spurring out from her guts. "Fire all lasers and turbo laser defenses. Focus fire on those fighters, let the Vipers take shots at that cruiser."

Omega's voice filled with enthusiasm as he felt this was the most even, and possibly best prepared battle they'd had in ten yahren. "Yes, sir."

**xXx**

"Red and blue squadrons, you are assigned to disable that ship. Silver spar and bronze spar, you take out those fighters and keep them off their backs." Ordered the voice of Sergeant Rigel, the flight corporal who usually managed the Viper squadrons.

Almost a quarter of the Vipers had already launched, but Apollo still felt like putting his own word out. Switching on his unit, he made sure it was where only blue squadron could hear him.

"Let's show these fraks how colonial fighting is supposed to be done."

As if in respect, two Vipers pulled up into the standard formation on either side of Apollo's fighter. To his left he saw Bojay and then to his right he saw Starbuck who gave one of his signature cocky smiles and then broadcast a signal intended only for Apollo, but it didn't matter that the rest of the squadron heard his cheer.

"Frak yeah! Let's get these Cylon wanna-be bastards!"

"Let's stay calm about this." Commented Boomer across the channel. "They may be hostile, but they're still human."

"Incoming fighters! Heads up, they're coming in fast." Apollo notified his squadron as two dozen fighters came in, looking more like gray and black letter 'H' than anything battle worthy.

The fighters came in even faster than what Apollo and most of blue squadron had anticipated. Multitudes of green laser bolts flashed out into space; Apollo, Bojay, and Starbuck curved up to get out of the path of the sudden onslaught. The other Vipers in blue squadron fired back with laser torpedoes, causing four of the strange fighters to go up in vibrant explosions, another two getting caught in the explosions and being destroyed themselves. Lasers from the fighters made direct hits with several of the colonial fighters, but fortunately the force fields and excellent maneuvering saved all but two of their members. Remaining fighters in the squadron moved in an upward vector as all seventy-five ships of silver spar and bronze spar came into formation where blue and red squadrons had just moved out of the fire zone, firing a volley of laser torpedoes that looked more like a lost comet than weapons fire.

Over a hundred blasts of yellow energy fire cascaded and parried with the green lasers of the TIE fighters, each penetrating the other's fire and sending over twenty fighters on both sides into a fiery inferno. In the opening battle, so far the Viper pilots had fared better than their Imperial counterparts, but another two dozen fighters from the star destroyer had now exited the hanger and upon seeing a group of Vipers break off and move towards their ship, they changed their course to destroy blue and red squadron.

"Get these guys off our backs!" The voice of Sergeant Jolly of yelled across all frequencies just before a blast of laser fire ripped through the ranks of red squadron and hit his engines, instantly destroying his ship.

Vipers of red and blue tried their best to maneuver out of the enemy's fire, but several were unsuccessful. The fighters might be weakly armed and armored, but they were insanely fast. Knowing that the fate of their survival depended upon making sure the Vipers could get their shots off at the cruiser, silver spar decided they would break off from the dog fighting to cover red and blue squadrons. Quickly catching up with the star fighters that got ever closer to the cruiser, a pilot of silver spar saw a Viper moving side to side trying to avoid a constant barrage of laser fire. The pilot of the 'H' shaped fighter didn't seem to care or didn't know the Viper was coming up until he exploded like a small supernova from the laser torpedoes.

"Thanks!" Came the voice of Boomer. "Didn't know if we'd make it."

"Almost in attack range!" The voice of Apollo cut back across the channel.

The enemy's cruiser had grown much larger by this point, going from a tiny form to a mammoth creation of pure death and destruction. Laser exchanges between her and _Galactica_ exploded against shields and in space causing the entire area to look like it was a mine field.

Most of the fighters were off his back by now so Apollo felt now was the best time for the Vipers to use their turbo boost to get into the destroyer's critical areas before any damage was done to _Galactica_, but more contacts come out along his scanner, that made him glad he didn't issue the order. Sixteen more ships came out from the underside of the enemy cruiser, a variety of vessels larger than the fighters they had just been engaging and headed on a course between them and the ship.

"Apollo to Boomer, you see those ships?"

"Yea," Responded Boomer. "whatcha thinking?"

"Turbo and slingshot. Let silver spar deal with 'em."

"Might not be a good idea. That thing has to have some sort of point-defense weapon system. How about a simultaneous volley and then break off for separate attack runs."

"That could waste some of our shots."

"It could also save some of our lives." Boomer said rhetorically and waited for Apollo's response. It came in over the entire squadron's channel.

"Okay everyone, prepare to fire on my mark."

"Come on Apollo, I wanted to tear them up up close." Starbuck communicated his lack of enthusiasm in a disappointed way, but he was still ready to fight.

"You'll still get your chance Starbuck..."

The Imperial vessels came into firing range and lasers, ion cannons, and missiles began to fill the area, making it difficult for them to stay in any position long. Apollo felt a bead of sweat start to leak down his forehead.

"...stand ready...three...two...one...FIRE!"

**xXx**

Tarkin had watched the battle with considerable confidence in his forces as it had started. The TIE fighters had been slightly outnumbered, something he hadn't expected, but used their speed and the Colonials tactics to their advantage, and so far it had been a relatively fair fight. As for his ship-to-ship warfare, the _Galactica_ was losing ground, losing her shields on her side with several small explosions breaking off armor and other small systems as she turned to face the star destroyer head on.

He had smiled when she faced towards him. _It is unwise to attack a star destroyer head on, all of her __weapons can be brought upon you._ The strong shields of his ship held as only a few of their emplacements fired on his ship. In response, Tarkin had the destroyer lower its bow down so the heavy turbolasers along the sides could fire straight into the battlestar. The shields in the forward arc quickly failed as well as green and blue energy weapons sprayed onto the armored surface and Tarkin wondered how any military commander could continue to allow such an onslaught without begging surrender. Within another moment, he had his answer.

"Sir, several of their fighters have come into firing range and launched their energy weapons." A lieutenant at a sensor platform in the pit informed him.

"Our _gamma_-class assault ships, skipray blastboats, and _alpha_-class starwings should be more than sufficient to deter any further attempts to assault us directly."

The star destroyer wobbled just slightly as the volley crashed into the side of the ship's shields. The lieutenant analyzed the attack quickly and reported.

"Port shields at sixty-one percent and recharging..."

"You see, they could not overwhelm our shields and they will be picked off..." Tarkin had interrupted the lieutenant with a cocky voice, and equally cocky smirk, but it was short lived.

"Sir, they managed to destroy half our special assault fighters in a single volley. The remainder have broken off into pursuit vectors, but are having trouble keeping up due to some high speed mode the fighters have activated."

Tarkin's face scrunched up like a dried sponge as several more blasts sent a more violent ripple effect through the bridge, nearly knocking him on his feet. He wanted to bark orders to someone, perhaps Captain Darcc if he wasn't otherwise detained, but the officer had another announcement for him.

"The battlestar is suffering significant forward damage, we detect our weapons have begun breaching the hull along several decks. We could have them down to thirty-seven percent combat efficiency within five more minutes."

"Make that two!" Tarkin barked, but with a cool edge. After all, he couldn't lose his posture now if they were on the edge of victory. "Increase power to our weapons systems, divert it from the shields if needed, it's not that necessary they stay up at this point anyway. Tell the gunners to concentrate all smaller point-defense weapons on those fighters and destroy them."

At this point, Captain Darcc had made his approach back to the front of the bridge and had listened in on the situation. Darcc was a very even and ambitious man, and knew of Tarkin's tactical prestige, but still he wondered about the gaps in the older man's orders. Feeling more comfortable in speaking out than the lieutenant surely would, he very reasonable laid his thoughts out for the moff.

"Grand Moff Tarkin." Darcc waited for the moff to turn his head casually to the side, silently acknowledging him. "Perhaps our other fighters that are engaged in dogfights could help, after all they were designed more for hunting ships down that were trying to escape than actually go one on one."

"Indeed, a good idea Captain. Lieutenant, order our fighters back for search and destroy."

Tarkin paused as he watched weapons fire pour into the front of the battlestar more rapidly and intensity, pockets of air bursting out into space with short lived explosions, molding the front end into something almost unrecognizable. Several of the Vipers attempted an attack run on the bridge that ended with a violent explosion with several TIEs flying through where the fighters had just been. This whole battle had been little more than a spectacle for him, these 'colonials' had proven to be quite a nuisance, but so far they had caused no major damage, and already Tarkin was ready to make the fatal strike.

"Bring us to a distance of eight hundred meters, I want our guns to bare down on them at point blank range." Tarkin allow a small victorious smirk to cross his face in this moment. "Begin looking up coordinates for any possible exits from this vicinity. I don't want these rebels to cause any more set backs than they've already done. In three minutes, we should already be one our way home."

**xXx**

Core command was the most highly protected area on a battlestar. The shields lowered around the bridge meant that even a direct hit from capital ship weapons or fighters could not cause more than minimal damage. The remainder of the ship, however, had suddenly become to appear as defenseless as the twelve colonies in comparison.

"Commander, breaches on decks nine through nineteen forward have lost compression, and fifteen through nineteen are at risk of being lost all together." Reported a lieutenant from the second tier.

Adama's plan had relied solely on his Viper pilots and his heavy laser guns. The Vipers had accomplished their goal with above moderate success, but still the Imperials were countering the attacks better than Adama had accounted for. On the other hand, his lasers were completely useless, one having been shot completely off by a barrage of turbolaser fire and the other remaining without power as the reactor had reached the point of overloading. He could order the ship maneuver to a different position to disperse weapons fire back on an area protected by force fields, but he knew given enough time they would be penetrated again.

"Commander, do you have any more ideas?" Tigh asked him away from where anyone else could hear them along the third tier.

"Their commander is obviously a well accomplished war veteran, but he still does not completely understand a battlestar. Our flight pods have remained almost untouched and no ship threatening systems have been completely damaged. How long before the gun can continue charging?"

"Technicians have been working feverishly on the reactor, but it still would be unstable to start the main reactor." Tigh commented upon the most recent report. "At best it will be another five minutes."

Adama's forehead wrinkled at the news.

"We don't have five minutes. Our weapons are mainly for anti-personal purposes, and that has kept most of their fighters at bay, but their ship has powerful enough energy weapons to rip this ship out in half that remaining time."

Most shots sent violent rippling effects through the ship that caused Adama and Tigh both to grab onto the handles. After they had enough time to steady themselves, Omega gave another report.

"That's it sir, we've lost all our forward firepower, except of course for the heavy lasers which we can't use at this time, we'd be better off ramming them. Additional, blue and red squadron's are reporting heavy losses, but they say their scanners detect the destroyer is on the brink of losing shields and at that point they can begin attacking vital areas one by one."

"Excellent news, but that still doesn't buy us enough..."

"Commander!" Omega shouted, but it was very clear to everyone in core command what he was going to say.

The destroyer began approaching the battlestar more than she had in the last fifteen minutes. It's colossal size became even more obvious as she held off at a range close enough for them to pick up specific areas without needing any sensors, the sheer size of the behemoth being even larger than _Galactica _herself. More energy shots spewed down upon the ship with deadly force, and it became obvious to Adama, they no longer had a choice.

"Lieutenant Omega, order the technicians to finish up whatever work they've gotten completed and then evacuate main engineering. We're powering up the main reactor."

An alarmed look took shape across Omega's face, and even though Tigh hid it well, Adama knew he had to have been feeling the exact same way.

"But sir, the reactor will almost surely go critical. We'll all be destroyed!"

"We're dead anyway if we don't do something. You have your orders, get me power now lieutenant!"

"Yes...yes sir."

Adama waited patiently even as a relentless wave of green and blue energy savaged his ship around him and made even the tightly protected bridge groan with stress. His confidence felt well placed as it was announced main power was successfully restored, but in that same moment, scanners went dead all around them.

"What happened?" Adama demanded.

"Their ion surges fried out the scanning computers." Omega announced with immanent despair in his voice. "We're completely blind."

"No, not completely. Contact Lieutenant Apollo."

**Power-up sequence complete. Heavy lasers ready to fire upon your order, commander. **Notified the feminine voice of the computer. Within another few seconds, garbled transmission filtered through the command station and then Omega nodded that the transmission was open.

"This is _Galactica_ actual. Apollo do you read?"

"I'm still alive for now."

Relief coursed through Adama, hopefully this would all be over soon.

"I need you to get a lock on the center of that cruiser and transmit the coordinates to core command. As quickly as possible, Apollo."

There was a moments pause, then like a fresh stream coursing through the woods, information began to appear directly on Omega's screen.

"Thank you, lieutenant." Adama said, proud to have made it through to this moment. "Bring 'em home."

"At once, _Galactica_, so say we all."

"So say we all." Adama responded with a smile, the transmission ending and Adama continuing on immediately, the statement clearly being 'for them all'. "Fire the heavy cannon!"

No one in core command would get to see the brilliant beam of orange fire as it ripped through the space between both ships and struck into the underbelly of the destroyer. None of them could see how the beam and explosion converged so powerfully it ripped right through the ship and continued into the command decks of the upper destroyer just moments before the ship tore itself apart and all that remained was microscopic pieces of space debris.

Lieutenant Apollo, and the rest of the Vipers of _Galactica_ could see it clearly though, and to them, there was no clearer sign of hope and victory than that which had just thrown itself at them.

With the battle wrapped up and all Vipers on board within the next ten minutes, _Galactica_ was heavily damaged and far off course, but she was alive. They had no clue what they would do from that moment, needing major repairs and no safe place to do it in...but a ripple opened up. A wormhole centerly above the planet that the crew wouldn't have even needed scanners for to detect even if they'd been turned completely around. Some how knowing their destiny rested on the other side of the wormhole, Adama ordered them in and left what they'd experienced behind...

...and hoping they'd never have to experience it ever again.


End file.
